GEO Frequently Asked Questions
What is generative engine optimization (GEO) and why does it matter for professional services firms?
Website traffic has been declining for years. LLMs offer direct answers and information rather than results, which means there’s an opportunity for professional services firms to appear in answers. This process is called generative engine optimization, or GEO.
GEO is about making your firm more “findable” in AI-generated responses from platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, CoPilot or Perplexity. If a potential client asks, “What’s the best employee benefits consultant for private schools?” you want your name in that answer—not your competitor’s.
Isn’t GEO just SEO with a different name?
No. Traditional SEO gets you ranked in search engines among many other results; the goal is to get people to click through to your website, something that happens less and less frequently.
GEO is not about website traffic; it’s about serving people information where they want to consume it. GEO gets your firm mentioned in AI-generated answers based on entity recognition, semantic relationships and citability. Think of SEO as an aging subset of GEO.
I’ve heard a lot of different terms used to describe what you’re calling GEO; what is the difference between all of them?
This emerging field goes by different names and is crowded by a bunch of acronyms. They’re all focused on something slightly different, so let’s take a look at the nuances:
- GEO (generative engine optimization): Emphasizes the generative nature of AI responses. This is typically more in line with a traditional traffic-focused SEO approach, and not necessarily the right approach for professional services firms
- LLMO (large language model optimization): Technical term emphasizing the underlying models. Generally seen as a more academic approach
- LLM SEO: A minimalist approach weaving in some new AI requirements with traditional SEO
- AIO (artificial intelligence optimization): Very broad approach to optimizing for AI. For folks in marketing, this term is generally too broad, as it also applies to an AI-centered approach to engineering and software as well
Regardless of what terms you use and the nuances you decide are important to your business, we recommend that you adjust your marketing focus to make sure that your firm is visible and accurately represented when AI systems generate responses about your industry or services.
How do we start aligning our brand with the right topics to appear in AI answers?
It begins with developing a point of view around key industry trends and topics. Once you have this sketched out, there are some straightforward (but not easy to execute!) tactics to fuel your GEO efforts:
- Use thought leadership and media relations to associate your brand with key industry issues.
- Get quoted in respected publications on niche topics (e.g., “employer health benefits compliance”).
- Publish insightful, stat-backed content—whitepapers, webinars, proprietary research—that LLMs can cite.
LLMs prioritize content that is authoritative and is published in well-known places. You’re building semantic closeness between your firm and the services you want to be known for.
What types of content are most likely to be cited in LLM answers?
LLMs love numbers and expert voices. Including first-party statistics, client success metrics, or executive quotes increase your chances of being cited.
Is this just about blogs and PR? What about our service pages?
Service pages matter—but they need to be entity-rich and clearly explain your firm’s expertise in specific business outcomes. Add schema markup, FAQs and case studies that reinforce the kinds of problems you solve and who you serve. That helps AI “understand” your positioning.
A smart approach is to create “content pillars”—longer, detailed pages that focus on your core themes. This high-quality, organized, and discoverable content benefits both human readers and the algorithms of LLMs, helping you to build authority and enhance the user experience, ultimately contributing to a more effective and impactful content strategy in the age of AI.
How do we know what brand questions to answer?
Use keyword research tools to find queries like:
- “Top IT consultants for healthcare systems”
- “What does [Firm Name] specialize in?”
Answer those questions before someone types them into ChatGPT.
Are there risks to trying to “game” AI models?
Yes. Focus on genuine expertise and earned authority. LLMs are trained to sniff out fluff—and bad actors risk being de-indexed or ignored.
Why does GEO matter for professional services firms?
- Get quoted in credible places
- Publish authoritative, stat-rich content and get similar placements
- Treat themselves like entities, not just keyword targets
- Answer brand-related questions proactively
- Stay focused on quality and credibility over gimmicks
GEO is about making your firm more “findable” in AI-generated responses from platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, CoPilot or Perplexity. If a potential client asks, “What’s the best employee benefits consultant for private schools?” you want your name in that answer—not your competitor’s.
Why does GEO matter for professional services firms that rely on relationships and referrals?
People still search for answers as part of their validation process and as they are trying to decide whether or not they need the solution you offer. Your prospects will do research before they ever reach out to you for more information. It’s essential for you to be mentioned in the mix when they start asking ChatGPT or Perplexity questions about your industry.
Should we focus more on thought leadership PR or our own website content?
They’re both important. Your website is where you tell the story of who you are and what differentiates your firm in the marketplace. Thought leadership PR and mentions help to reinforce your story and build authority from other sources.
Should we do PR to help optimize for LLMs?
Yes—PR is one of the most effective levers in GEO.
LLMs pull answers from sources they trust. That means credible third-party validation—like being quoted in respected publications or featured in industry media—carries far more weight than content on your own site alone.
Public relations helps with GEO by:
- Creating authoritative citations in media; LLMs are more likely to reference credible, third party sites in their answers
- Reinforcing your brand’s expertise in very specific domains (e.g., “benefits consulting for private schools”)
- Expanding your digital footprint in ways that build semantic connections between your firm and key topics
- Improving your discoverability through sources LLMs are actively trained on
In short, earned media makes your brand more believable to both AI models and human decision-makers. PR isn’t just about visibility anymore—it’s about credibility at scale.
What’s the difference between being “searchable” and being “answerable”?
Traditional SEO makes you searchable—your content can appear somewhere in a list of results with the hope that someone clicks through to your website (an increasingly rare occurrence). GEO makes you answerable—your brand becomes part of the AI’s direct response. In a zero-click world, being “in the answer” is the new organic visibility. When you think about it, providing an answer rather than a bunch of link options is a more human experience—when you ask a person a question, they’re going to answer if they can, not list out a bunch of options, some of which they’ve been paid to say.
How do LLMs decide what content to trust and cite?
- Authoritativeness (credentials, citations, backlinks)
- Specificity (not vague generalizations)
- Structured information (lists, Q&A, stats)
- Citability (published in known sources with clear authorship and dates)
This often means media outlets, as well as websites such as Wikipedia, Reddit and LinkedIn—think of sites that have gatekeepers of some sort.
What kinds of firms are most likely to benefit from GEO?
Niche experts, category leaders, and firms with a strong point of view. If you’re offering something specific and have credible proof points, LLMs can position you as the “go-to” answer faster than traditional SEO ever could.
Professional services firms are in the business of selling the quality of their thinking, so making this thinking more broadly available by appealing to the LLMs can deliver huge benefits.
How long does it take to see results from GEO efforts?
You may start seeing your brand appear in AI-generated responses within weeks if you already have some authority. However, sustained visibility requires consistent publishing, media mentions, and refinement of your semantic footprint over at least 3–6 months or more.
When you work with Scribewise, we use tools to track your progress over time, so you’re never flying blind.
Professional services firms are in the business of selling the quality of their thinking, so making this thinking more broadly available by appealing to the LLMs can deliver huge benefits.
What tools or platforms help track LLM visibility?
This is an emerging field, so we’re all on this journey of discovery together. But, for starters, you can test how your brand shows up on the the LLMs themselves:
- Perplexity.ai (search and cite patterns)
- ChatGPT (Plus with web browsing) for testing brand answers
- Surfer AI, Clearscope, and MarketMuse for semantic analysis
Additionally, Scribewise’s own LLM visibility auditing process can help you monitor performance.
What role does structured data (like schema markup) play in GEO?
Schema markup helps LLMs understand your site’s content with greater clarity—like giving them a legend to your map. Use it to tag services, authors, FAQs, and industries served. It can help LLMs understand details about your firm and place it into larger context—which can lead to more appearances in AI answers.
How is GEO different from brand awareness?
Brand awareness is important for every firm—you need to be as top of mind as possible for your target audience so that, when it’s time for them to consider hiring someone like you, you’re on the list. Or better yet, you are the only firm on the list.
But brand awareness, especially in professional services, is often hard to quantify.
GEO, on the other hand, is more nuanced and more measurable, thanks to Scribewise’s monitoring tools. It isn’t just about being known—it’s about being known for something specific and showing up when someone asks for that something. Think of it as hyper-targeted, AI-driven reputation building.
Can GEO help attract talent, not just clients?
Absolutely. Prospective employees also research companies via AI tools. If your firm is described as a leader in your niche by a chatbot, or if you repeatedly get published and become known for specific points of view, that builds credibility for recruiting top talent—especially younger professionals who trust AI-assisted search.
How do we measure success in an GEO strategy?
While direct analytics are still developing, look for indicators such as:
- More branded search queries
- Improved media placements and citations
- Increased direct traffic
- Higher inbound inquiries citing “found you on Perplexity/ChatGPT”
- LLM-generated answers including your firm (manual spot checks)
There are tools that also provide a snapshot of how you stack up against your competition, and how you’re trending over a period of time. Feel free to reach out to Scribewise to gain a better understanding of this.
What’s the cost of doing nothing?
Ultimately, you become digitally invisible. As LLMs become the default interface for online discovery, firms that aren’t actively building their visibility footprint will be excluded from answers—and therefore from consideration.
Yes, this is early days, so any negative impact today will be fairly minimal. But the starter’s pistol has been fired, and the race is on. At some point, LLM results will become more solidified and baked in, and playing catch up will be very costly.
How can Scribewise help with GEO?
We help you become the answer.
For more than a decade, Scribewise has helped our clients to become trusted, findable authorities in their niche. Now, the universe has spun in our direction and LLMs are rewarding firms for exactly what we’ve been doing since 2012.
Scribewise helps professional services firms show up in AI-generated answers by:
- Developing thought leadership content that demonstrates true expertise, backed by original insights and clear POVs.
- Running strategic media outreach to secure high-authority placements and quotes in respected outlets—feeding the AI’s training data with credible mentions of your firm.
- Optimizing website content for clarity, specificity, and semantic richness, making it easier for LLMs to “understand” your brand.
- Identifying and answering the right questions your audience is asking LLMs—and making sure your answers are the best available.
In short, we combine storytelling, strategy, and technical know-how to make your firm more discoverable in the AI-powered world.
What makes Scribewise a good partner for GEO?
Scribewise is built for this GEO moment.
GEO sits at the intersection of thought leadership, media relations, and technical optimization—and that’s exactly where Scribewise operates. Here’s why we’re uniquely positioned to help:
- We understand how LLMs “think.” We’re constantly testing prompts, tracking citations, and studying how AI tools source and serve information—so we can shape your content to align with those systems.
- We blend creativity with credibility. Our background in journalism and PR means we don’t just create content—we create content that earns attention and trust.
- We know your business. We specialize in professional services firms. We know how to surface your unique expertise and position it for AI visibility without losing the nuance of relationship-driven sales.
- We don’t chase gimmicks. Our approach is strategic, sustainable, and grounded in helping you build a durable reputation—not just win a few fleeting mentions.
Scribewise helps you own your niche in the emerging AI search ecosystem—not by shouting louder, but by becoming the most credible, quotable voice in the room.